"Give me the text of 'A Grammarian's Funeral,'" she said to Blue Bonnet one day during this week of penance, after finishing the poem. She knew that she was asking a difficult thing; but she wanted to test Blue Bonnet's perception—her mental acuteness.
"You mean tell what it is about?" Blue Bonnet asked.
"Exactly, Miss Ashe."
"Well—" Blue Bonnet halted lamely for a second, "I couldn't understand it—that is, all of it—but I think it's about some students taking the body of their teacher up a mountain to bury it—and singing as they went."
Miss North smiled and a laugh went round the room.
Blue Bonnet sank down in her seat, covered with confusion, totally unaware that she had said anything that might be regarded as funny. She looked up in surprise, her cheeks flaming.
Miss North explained.
"You have the idea, Miss Ashe. It amuses the class to think of students singing as they bury their teacher, though I daresay there might be more truth than poetry in it."
There was no sarcasm in her tones. She laughed with the rest. Blue Bonnet's attention had delighted her.
There had been another pleasure during the week, one that Blue Bonnet greatly appreciated. She was allowed ten minutes with Carita in the Infirmary.